Economic development group offers incentives to call center

The Lubbock Economic Development Alliance approved a job incentive package totaling $562,000 for VXI Global Solutions Inc., which began training 60 workers Monday at a new call center in West Lubbock.

Los Angeles-based VXI, which took over 27,000-square-feet of space at Wayland Plaza, 2002 W. Loop 289, plans to eventually hire 329 workers.

"We looked at several cities, but nothing compared to what we found in Lubbock," said Tobias Parish, vice president of U.S. operations.

Parish said the call center, which will open May 6, will be performing work for DirecTV, a satellite television provider.

"We're still looking for some people with sales experience or who have the potential to learn," he said.

VXI looked at other sites in Temple, Harker Heights and Texarkana before coming to Lubbock.

Gary Lawrence, CEO of LEDA, said the city-appointed economic development corporation decided to extend a job incentive package after it was approached.

"They were preparing to sign a contract in Temple, but then asked us if we could provide an incentive package. So we crafted one for them. My feeling is they wouldn't have come here without one," he said.

Marc Farmer, director of business recruitment for LEDA, said several partners, including WorkSource of the South Plains, came together when it looked reasonably certain that VXI was interested in Lubbock.

"They plan on doubling their size in the next two or three years," he said.

Parish said VXI, which employs 5,000 globally, continues to grow at a tremendous rate.

Parish said in addition to the incentives offered by LEDA, which will be paid out over a five-year-period as jobs are documented, other job training dollars were provided by WorkSource.

VXI said it plans to pay its workers $9 an hour starting out - boosting them to $12 an hour once the site is fully up and operating.

Farmer said VXI invested $2.5 million in the former Chase.com facility and the jobs, if created, will provide more than $8 million in annual salaries.